Today’s Gospel reading consists of the final verses in the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus as recorded by the evangelist, St. John. These verses contain familiar words as we have heard these themes presented in various ways over the past three chapters of the Gospel.
Yesterday we heard Jesus pray for his disciples: “Holy Father, keep them in your name.” Imagine for a moment what it must have felt like to hear Jesus pray for them personally.
After praying for his disciples, he prays for another group of individuals as he says: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” Jesus includes us in his prayer, you and me and every person who has ever come to believe in him throughout the history of the Church. Jesus prays for us to be one with one another as he and the Father are one.
There are currently about 7.9 billion people in the world. Despite the devastating effects of the pandemic, the population of the world has continue to grow albeit at a slightly slower pace. China and India, two of the hardest hit countries during the pandemic account for approximately one third of the world’s population. Of those almost eight billion people, approximately 2.2 billion are Christians. Such numbers are almost incomprehensible. However, the Scripture insist throughout that God knows each of these individuals as a unique person.
Throughout the Scriptures, God has been busy at self-revelation. Jesus represents the last revelation of the nature of God. The final words of Jesus’ prayer tell us the nature of God as he prays that: “the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
While we lay in the womb of our mothers, we were tied to her through has been named an umbilical cord. At birth, that cord was severed. From that moment every human being works to reestablish that connection to “the other.” It begins with the mother and child bond and grows continually through our lives until we find a way to connect with God, the God who is Love. Jesus shows us the way to make that connection and gives us the gift of the Eucharist to aid us in our quest.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator